DoIT Academic Technology advances the University’s mission, strategic priorities, and the Wisconsin Idea by wisely applying technology to current and future academic environments. Through collaboration and partnerships, with a commitment to service and innovation, we bridge technologies, people, and day-to-day work practices to enable 21st Century digital literacy, manage our resources, and evaluate our practices.

Active Teaching Lab Recap: Rubrics

Fri February 1, 2019

A good rubric can guide student effort and make grading easier for the instructor. At the cold February 1, 2019 Active Teaching Lab, 10 participants discussed how to fashion an effective rubric within Canvas. Participants explored the advantages and disadvantages of different rubric designs and shared what’s worked and what hasn’t worked for them in the rubric development process.

Takeaways

Identify what you want students to take away from the assignment, course, and field/discipline. Align rubric criteriacategories to assess these “enduring understandings” to help ensure the assignment is clearly defined and aligned.

Plan rubrics in Google Sheets or Excel before moving into Canvas for simplicity in revisions and rethinking.

Use clear and simple language; reserve details for individual feedback.

Give rubrics to students when the assignment is given and/or involve them in rubric creation or adaptation. Afterwards, involve students in identifying what worked, what was missing, and what was confusing to revise and improve upon the rubric.

Use a Non-scoring Rubric in Canvas to help guide student work and focus on feedback without the distraction of stakes-upping point values.

Video

The Active Teaching Lab is a Faculty Engagement program with sessions held on Thursdays from 1:00-2:00pm and Fridays from 8:30-9:45am in the Middleton Building (1305 Linden Dr.), room 120. Check out upcoming Labs or read the recaps from past Labs. We build interdisciplinary conversations that are more emergent than a presenter and more dynamic than a panel — a conversation with colleagues sharing challenges, solutions, and experiments on topics selected by a variety of stakeholders.

Sign up for regular Lab announcements by sending an email to join-activeteaching@lists.wisc.edu.